What a strata report actually is

A strata report is the written result of someone physically inspecting the records of the owners corporation for the building you are buying into. It is not a building inspection and it is not a legal document in its own right. It is a snapshot of what the scheme’s own paperwork says about its money, its decisions, its disputes and its problems.

In NSW a prospective purchaser can inspect those records with the written authority of the owner, which is why the request usually goes through the selling agent. In practice almost nobody does the inspection themselves. You engage a strata inspection company, they attend the strata manager’s office or access the records online, and they produce a report that is commonly 40 to 100 pages.

What is inside one

The inspector is reading the scheme’s records, so the report reflects whatever those records contain. Typically that means minutes of general meetings and strata committee meetings, the financial statements, the balances of both funds, levy records including who is in arrears, the insurance policy and its valuation, the registered by-laws, correspondence, fire safety paperwork, and any records about defects, disputes or proposed works.

The quality varies enormously, because the quality of strata record keeping varies enormously. A well-run scheme produces a boring report. That is the outcome you want.

The 8 things a strata report tells you

The state of the 2 funds

Every scheme runs an administrative fund for day to day costs and a capital works fund for major repairs and replacement. The second one is the one that matters to a buyer, because a scheme with very little in it and an ageing building is a scheme that will be raising money from you.

Whether a special levy has been struck or discussed

Covered in its own section below, because it is the single most expensive thing a report can reveal.

What the levies actually are

And whether they have been rising. A sudden increase usually has a reason, and the reason is usually in the minutes.

Who is in arrears

Significant arrears across several lots tell you the scheme may struggle to fund work it has already committed to.

Whether the building is adequately insured

And whether the insurance valuation is current. An out of date valuation in a market where building costs have moved sharply can leave a scheme underinsured.

The by-laws you will be bound by

These are registered and they bind you from settlement, whether or not you have read them.

Any disputes, orders or proceedings

Including anything before the Tribunal, and anything involving the builder or developer.

The history of works and defects

What has been fixed, what has been quoted, and what the scheme has decided not to do.

Special levies: the number that catches buyers out

A special levy is a one-off charge raised when the scheme needs money it does not have. They are most common in older buildings, buildings with defects, and buildings that have underfunded the capital works fund for years.

The important thing for a buyer is timing. A special levy that has already been struck before settlement is usually the seller’s liability, and one struck afterwards is usually yours, but how that falls depends on what the contract says and on exactly when the resolution was passed.

The capital works fund and what a healthy one looks like

NSW schemes are required to have a 10 year capital works fund plan, which estimates what the building will need and when. The plan is only as good as the assumptions behind it, and plenty of schemes have a plan on paper and nothing like enough money in the fund.

There is no single correct balance, because a 6 lot walk-up and a 200 lot tower with lifts, a pool and a fire system have completely different futures. What a report lets you do is compare the balance against what the plan says is coming. A fund of $40,000 against a plan that contemplates a $600,000 roof replacement in 4 years is telling you something specific.

Building defects and the bond scheme

For residential strata buildings over 3 storeys where the building work was contracted from 2018 onwards, NSW requires the developer to lodge a building bond of 2% of the contract price, and requires inspections of the completed work to identify defects. If the scheme you are buying into is newer, the report should show whether that process happened, what the inspector found, and whether the bond was called on.

For older buildings none of that applies, and the defect history is whatever the minutes and correspondence reveal. Repeated references to water ingress, cracking, balcony or window problems, or remedial engineering reports are worth taking seriously even where no levy has yet been raised.

By-laws: pets, parking and short-term letting

By-laws are registered rules and they bind every owner. 3 come up constantly.

Pets

Since the 2021 reforms a by-law that bans pets outright is not enforceable in NSW, and an owners corporation cannot unreasonably refuse permission. That does not mean there are no conditions, so if a pet matters to you the by-law still needs reading.

Parking

Visitor parking, allocation of spaces and whether a space is part of your lot or common property allocated to you are all different things, and the report will show which.

Short-term letting

A scheme can adopt a by-law restricting short-term rental where the lot is not the host’s principal place of residence. If your plan for the property involves letting it that way, this is the first thing to check rather than the last.

What a strata report does not tell you

It does not tell you the physical condition of the apartment you are buying. It reports on records, not on walls. It does not tell you about decisions the scheme has not made yet. It does not tell you about anything that was never written down, which in a poorly run scheme can be a great deal. And it does not interpret itself.

That last point is the practical one. A strata report will hand you 70 pages of minutes and balances and leave you to work out which 3 facts in it actually affect your decision.

What a strata report costs in NSW, and what a review costs

These are 2 different purchases and buyers routinely confuse them.

The report itself

You buy this from a strata inspection company, not from a lawyer. Cost is commonly around $400, varying with the provider, the size of the scheme and how quickly you need it. Some sellers provide a report already prepared, which is convenient but worth noting was commissioned by the other side.

The legal review of it

This is what we do, and it is $600 + GST as a fixed fee, as set out on our pricing page. It is plain-English advice on what the report actually means for you: what the fund position implies, whether a levy is coming, which by-laws affect your plans, and what is worth raising before you exchange.

If you are also engaging us for the purchase itself, the strata advice forms part of the contract review rather than a separate charge. The stand-alone fee is for buyers who want the report assessed before deciding whether to proceed at all.

Where this leaves you

A strata report tells you what the building’s records say. Working out what those records mean for the purchase you are about to make is a different job. We review strata reports for buyers across NSW for a fixed $600 + GST, usually within a few days, and tell you plainly what is worth worrying about and what is not.

This article is general information only, current as at October 2026, and is not legal, financial or investment advice. Strata law, levies and by-laws differ between schemes and change over time. You should obtain advice specific to your circumstances before acting. Corporate Legal provides legal and conveyancing services only.